Heres a few new images of Our Eurpean beech, mainly Epping forest, some from Windsor Great Park and one or two from Knole Park all taken within the last three weeks, I tend to get around a bit! I am very fortunate to live within a short drive of some of Europe's most amazing and ancient woodlands, where man has been the driving force in the creation of unique habitats, the likes of which are rarely seen elsewhere. There are those that say that our European beech, Fagus sylvatica is a fragile beast that cant be pruned, this is of course utter nonsense and the beech is as capable a survivor as any, as youll no doubt see here! True beeches are sensitive and need a little care in management, but as long as they are understood anything is achievable.

pruning trees is not a blanket situation, it is a species specific situation, an Oak or an ash that are high demanding of light require different approaches to the shade tolerant woodland species such as beech, which with their thin bark can be highly sensitive to over exposure to light.

A fine Pollard in Epping forest

Epping forest is home to 10's of thousands of Beech pollards

defying the laws of gravity is an art!

Very ancient beech probably in excess of 500years with Ganoderma Sp and Perenniporia fraxinea

Inonotus cuticularis, beech is its favourite host species though this can also be found occasionally on Acer Sp including Acer campestre

A beech tree that I have been stage pollarding as a compromise to felling, the client was feeling the tree was too large for the location and this is just before the second stage as you can see it is responding well

European beech is a fragile genus? yeah right, a natural pollard!

A beech freed from forest now filling out to become and open grown specimen.

An included bark union long since failed, now occlusion tissues (embryonic) form into re iterative roots due to contact with moist rotting wood rather than exposure to light which may have caused the tissues to differentiate into shoots (retrenchment)

if you are interested in comparing North American to European climate, you might also like this website.It features a list of tree species native to the US. If you click on "Prediction" a map appears that shows, where in the world the particular species would meet conditions, that are similar to it's native range.

That's an intersting project, but currently it appears to be far too positive. For Picea sitchensis for example, over a half of Sweden and almost a half of Finland is marked in bright red. In reality, the species has no chance north of the Baltic Sea coast. On the other hand, if I switch to "global II" modelling the region where the species reaches its greatest height (NW California) is NOT marked in bright red.

My understanding is that the disease is native to Europe and European beech has better resistance against the fungus than American beech does. The disease does not appear to be a threat to European beech forests.

My understanding is that the disease is native to Europe and European beech has better resistance against the fungus than American beech does. The disease does not appear to be a threat to European beech forests.

Kouta

here, many beech are infected- but many seem resistant- what's unfortunate is that many loggers cut the resistant beech and leave the diseased beech

as a professional forester, when I mark a stand, if I see a resistent beech, I NEVER mark it and always mark most of the diseased beech- if everyone did this, it might help that species recover

You've hit another home run. Most of us on this side of the pond have a long standing curiosity about European forests, as opposed to single large trees. You have gone a long way toward opening us up to what Europe can grow in the way of forests. The early forests of Europe must have been really something.

Bob

hmmm this is a very much nice info dude thanks for sharing.. i think it should be share around the web.